Happy Half Birthday Emmy!

Emmy is 6 months old today! And she is one sweet little baby...and I think she is pretty darn cute too ;) So here is what my little girl is up to these days:

-she weighs around 15ish or so pounds. I can't wait to see the real number and percentile when she goes to the MD on Monday. She is a little chunk and I LOVE it! Drew was always on the smaller size and Ellie can barely stay on the grow charts. But not Emmy! She loves to eat.
-she can roll from front to back and back to front
-she is eating (4) 8oz bottles and has been eating stage 1 jar food for a week or so now.
-she is sitting up but doesn't know it, so she will turn to look at something and fall flat on the floor.
-she loves the Exersaucer and the jumperoo
-she is grabbing toys and moving them from one hand to another
-she is starting to reach for people to pick her up
-she is sleeping like a baby
-she is bringing smiles to Mama's face every.single. day.




Happy Half Birthday Emmy! We love you!


Love to all!

Stitches?

Not tonight...but we were close.

A warrior...


A cowgirl...


The result...


You got it. Drew and Ellie had a collision and Ellie came out on the losing end of this battle. So I call home on my way home from work to be told by Kevin that they had a "little drama...but we are ok now." What??? Ok, what kind of drama? He explains that Drew and Ellie "ran into each other" and Ellie had a "little cut on her eye." So I ask is she ok, he says she is. I ask did she cry, he says she did. I ask did it swell up, he says it didn't. I ask if she is acting ok, he says she is. (Can you tell I am a neurotic mom???....yes, I am.) I get home and immediately say to him..."I think she needs stitches!" Of cousrse, Ellie wouldn't let us touch the cut and the blood was a little thicker that it appears in the picture. I start thinking that if I do nothing and she ends up with an infected gash on her face, I would feel terrible. So I call the pediatrician's office to get some guidance. I get the answering service, who promptly has a nurse call me back. After several questions, she says to me "I had to be the bearer of bad news, but you need to take her in." That is, to the ER. You have GOT to be kidding me. It is 6:45 on a Saturday night and I am sure we would be surrounded by nothing by swine flu and drug addicts. Uggghhh! So I explain to the nurse my reservations about being in the ER on a Saturday night, during flu season (yes, I have become quite neurotic about H1N1 too:( among numerous other things). Kevin explains that I am completely overreacting. I ask if there is anyway I can speak to the physician on call. I know this nurse is cursing me. She says sure, we hang up, I wait and start to think. I REALLY don't want to go to the ER with a 2 year old for stitches on a Saturday night during flu season. Not my idea of a fun Saturday night activity. And I would feel TERRIBLE if I don't go and Ellie ends up with a huge scar on her face and "abnormal hairgrowth on her eyebrows" (per info from the nurse...I'm thinking, well most of us just wax those things anyway.) My gut was telling me that she was fine, but the nurse had to told me to take her in and I am second guessing my gut. And then it hit me. We have a good friend in the neighborhood that is a pediatrican that had given me her number when I had Emmy. I took Ellie over, Linda checked her out and assurred me that she didn't think that I neede to take her to the ER. Neosporin until it heals, then Mederma. Ahhhh! Thank goodness.

We got home and played Drew's favorite game..."Boat!" This is Kevin and Drew's code name for pulling out every single pillow and blanket in the entire house and building a fort/boat in the bonus room floor with them. Tonight, Drew also included all of his "pets" or "babies" ie. stuffed animals.

One baby is cuter than the rest...can you spot her?

Playing in the boat!

A fun night! Much better than the ER.

Love to all!

Finally!

Emmy is holding her bottle :)


And yes, she is on the kitchen floor...what can I say they all get hungry at the same time! So as I make PB&Js, Emmy feeds herself :) Drew started holding his own bottle at 4 months, Ellie NEVER did it, and thankfully, Emmy has decided to do it at 5 months. I do realize that to most people, this is totally not a big deal and may seam a little....should I say harsh, to make babies hold their own bottle. These "people" obviously do not have three children...or maybe they have five arms ;) Let's just say, her being able to lay down and hold her bottle allows me the ability to take care of all three children's needs at the same time, something that is much easier to do without a baby in your arms and a bottle under your chin.

Big girl!!!



Tomorrow we will start working with a spoon so that she can feed herself her own cereal ;)

Love to all!

Happy Halloween!

So I am totally not into 80 degree weather for Halloween...but at least I didn't have to worry about the little ones getting cold tonight. It was weather warm day for a chili cookoff, but the neighbors congregated and had our 2nd annual "Chili Cook Off." Lisa's chicken and white bean chili took home the prize (recipe to follow - I have to get it first). We were a little hurried in getting dressed to get out and Trick or Treat, so that is why I don't have a good picture of all three of the kids together...they were totally not interested when we finished either (two only wanted candy and one only wanted a bottle).

This year was very different than last year. Drew has finally figured out that the more houses that you go to, the more candy that you get. So needless to say, Kevin and I could barely keep up. He was literally running from house to house. Ellie wanted to eat each and every piece of candy as it was placed in her bucket. I loved watching the two of them and their little Trick or Treating ways! Emmy was as good as gold and slept the whole time (well, almost)!

Drew and Ellie are all ready to go get some candy!

Emmy looks a litte unsure of this whole "costume" thing!

Trick or Treat!!!

Snug as a bug in a rug!

Pretty as a princess!

finally home and ready to dig into the candy!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Love to all!

Halloween Parade

Drew's class had a Halloween parade today and IT. WAS. ADORABLE! We watched all of the little kids march around the building in their halloween costumes. There were so many cute little princesses, pirates, pumpkins, superwomen, batmen, and one handsome little RED DRAGON NINJA!


So, about the costume. About a month or so ago, Kevin and I started talking about Halloween costumes. I thought it would be adorable to have Drew and Ellie be Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. I thought it would be the cutest little coordinating brother/sister costume. Kevin would have NOTHING to do with that. And I mean NOTHING. He wouldn't even entertain the idea by letting me show him that there were some really cute Peter Pan costumes and they weren't all "dorky" (per his terminology). So I decided that since Kevin was so picky about what Drew was gonig to be, then he would be "in charge" of Drew's costume. Two weeks later, he brough home a Bumble Bee Transformer costume. I think, given the right costume, a Transformer would have been great. But no! This costume was a nylon jumpsuit with a transformer looking body printed on it. No three dimensional pieces like on the nicer ones, just one dimension, flat transformer. The costume didn't even have anything on the back. So it was a transformer from the front and a great jumpsuit from the back. I HATED it! And of course Drew LOVED it! What's a Mama to do? Let her son trick or treat in a costume that is totally NOT cute but that he loves...or convince him that he LOVES something that is much cuter ;0) We will see what happens about that on Saturday? So anyway, Drew had to have a "potty friendly" costume for his Halloween parade. A one-piece jumpsuit - not so much. So last night at work, I got him a red dragon ninja one that was two pieces so that we were in compliance with the "potty friendly" requirement. It was $6.99 at Target and looks a little better than the Walmart Transformer (yet again, Target trumps Walmart). Still, would not be on my list of Top 5, but it would work for the parade. I showed it to Drew this morning...and he LOVES it! So he had no problems ditching the transformer for the Halloween parade at school. We will see what he ends up in on Saturday!

Here is the Turtle Class


An attempt to get a good picture of Drew and Ellie. Look at the face on Ellie - what happened to my "cheeser"


They tossed apples in the trees...


Pinned the tail on the cat...


Flipped ducks...

and balanced the pumpkin on the spoon.

It was a really cute Fall Festival and Drew couldn't have been any happier about his day at school :)

By the way...Kevin now has NO recolection of our Peter Pan/Tinkerbell conversation! Today, as I was talking with him about costumes he claims that conversation never happened. I can't decide if he is just trying to be funny or not, but he swears that I never suggested that and that I never told him that he was "in charge" of Drew's costume. "So they could have been Peter Pan and Tinkerbell?" I ask him today on the phone. His reply, "I don't care Liz!"

Oh. My. Goodness. Did I mention how STRESSED OUT Halloween costumes make me?

Love to all!

Party Like It's 1999

Kevin and I had our ten year reunion last weekend and are STILL trying to recover! We stayed out way too late, drank a little too much and had a blast with all of our old BHS friends. We started the weekend off with the high school football game. The Barons were losing 48 -0 when we left at the beginning of the third quarter...some things never change :( But Drew and Ellie had a good time for the hour that we were there...Drew just couldn't understand why our team couldn't score a touchdown (welcome to the club buddy!). We then went out to the Copper Kettle, enjoyed a few beverages, played cornhole and saw some friends from high school. Saturday night was the reunion and I REALLY enjoyed seeing people that I haven't seen in since high school. We danced a lot, talked a lot, drank a lot, and forgot a lot :(

There were about 45 or so "classmates" (we graduated with around 130 or so). So with spouses/partners, there were around 75 or 80 people there. A really good crowd. There were several "superlatives" given:

Most recently married: Jon and Amy (Moody) Bell
Most kids: Chancey Newton (5)
Traveled the furthest: Sir Michael White (14 hours - Chicago)
Been in school the longest: Dr. Angela Elam (currently doing her opthamology residency)

These are all that I can remember - sorry, it was later in the night! But our class has so many individuals that we are so proud of :)

Here are a few pictures from the night!

Class of 1999


Brook, Liz, Amy, Ann


Robin, Lynn, Kevin, Liz, Laurie, Buddy, Angie, Steve, Krystal, Ann, Amy


Amy, Liz


Ann, Liz


The "Late Night" crowd

A little later in the night...you think Ann had fun?

How about me?

Let's just say that 8am was VERY early the next morning! But it was totally worth it.

Here's to another 10 years!

Love to all!

5 Months Old and So Sweet

Emmy is 5 months old today and can I just tell you that she is a SWEETHEART of a baby. She is developing the cutest little personality. She recently started laughing and it is the cutest darn thing ever! I love to hear a baby laugh :) She is drooling a lot too now. If I didn't know any better I would think that she is cutting teeth...but being that this is my third and the other two drooled constantly for about 3 months before they got a tooth, I'd say that she probably won't have any teeth any time soon. Emmy loves to lay on her back and has recently taken a liking to the taste of her little toes :) She still won't roll from her back to her tummy and really has no desire too. She is perfectly content laying on her back and watching the chaos around her (aka: Drew and Ellie).

Since she doesn't have a doctor's appointment this month, I don't know how much she weighs. I am guessing around 15 pounds though - she is a little chunk :)




Couldn't you just eat those little cheeks up?

Love to all!

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch today, and it was BEAUTIFUL! A perfect day to be outside. Drew was so excited and could hardly make up his mind as to what he wanted to do first.

They started in the maze. It was so cute to see Ellie follow her big brother and he was actually rooting her on saying, "Come on Ellie, this way!" In fact, at one point, he went back to get her and couldn't find her. He had this terrible look of despair on his face and she was standing behind him the whole time (Kevin and I were standing there giggling on the side, because she was litterally RIGHT beside him and he SERIOUSLY had no clue where she was!). But they made it through.

Played in the corn playground...

Went down the GIANT slide (which Drew would have NOTHING to do with two years ago!).

Ellie, on the other hand, got to the bottom and kept saying "More! More!" She loved it - fearless child :)

They jumped in the Haybail Jump! Hay was EVERYWHERE!

Panned for gems...

And picked out THREE...

PERFECT...

PUMPKINS!

Enjoy the last few days of this beautiful weather!

Love to all!

A Party For A Princess

The "Outfit"...(I made it! I usually have the claim of "not a stitch in it, but my mother-in-law brought her sewing maching and I actually did sew the skirt together :)... there is still a LOT of heat-n-bond and fabric glue involved though ;)

The Cake (made this too...did NOT turn out like the picture, but it was still ok- didn't you know that castles had crooked tourets?)

The "setup"

The "Princess"

She's ready to go!

The Family

1...2...3...BLOW!

Happy Birthday Elle Belle! We love you!